Following a Public meeting held on Friday the decision has been made that Phuket’s celebrity crocodile Lay Pang which was captured several months ago will go to a new home at Phuket Zoo.

Following a ruling that Lay Pang now belongs to the Phuket province the decision has been made to move it from its current temporary home at the National Institute of Coastal Aquaculture in Region 5 to the Phuket Zoo at some point in mid-December.

The zoo is said to be well equipped to take care of the large croc as they currently have over 200 crocodiles in their care.

The Manager of the zoo, Pichai Sakulsuan said that his zoo was ready to look after Lay Pang and have already prepared a 20 meter enclosure for the croc.

Many people argued that Phuket’s croc should be returned to the wild where it was captured, however Professor Thon Thamrongnawasawat of the Kasetsart University Fisheries Department urged people to realise that the croc cannot go back to nature as it is an “alien species.”

DNA analysis showed that Lay Pang is a mixture between Crocodolus siamensis and Crocodolus porosus, a combination which could not naturally have happened in the wild.